Behind Wide Eyes
by karaleyn
Summary: The impossibility of his dream has made many think Luffy was stupid, but behind wide eyes, one can see the truth: there's more to him than expected. No pairings or spoilers.


hey everyone!

i'm sorry i disappeared for quite some time after writing my last piece (Won't You Come Home?) ; didn't really mean to... anyway, i've been rewatching One Piece with a friend, and got really irritated with the Alabasta Arc filler, when the entire thing seems intent on showing how everyone thinks Luffy is a moron. i've been meaning to write a "HEY! Luffy is NOT an idiot!" story for awhile, but this one sorta popped out at me...

don't worry! NO SPOILERS! NO PAIRINGS! CAN BE READ BY ANYONE! EQUAL OPPORTUNITY! RAR! lol

I kept things vague on purpose.. well. vague enough. i _refer _to things, but if you don't know an instance when something i mention happens, then you won't see any spoilers at all. i did thisbecause ...i don't want to make this fic available only to the people who have seen to such and such a length of the anime. _the ONLY spoiler for this would be for ep 2... _in that, if you don't realize who the first crew member of Luffy's pirate crew is, then there's one sentence that mentions the name.

i definitely plan to continue with the normal introspective pieces... like the Usopp one i did. i think i may end up doing a Luffy one like that next. but for now, here's my latest contribution to the fandom. um. yes ;

please review if you'd like! i'd appreciate knowing what everyone thinks... does anyone ELSE think Luffy's _not actually a moron?_ i'd be happy if people agreed ;

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**Title:** Behind Wide Eyes  
**Author:** Karaleyn (karaleyn AT yahoo DOT com) -feel free to email/review! i'd love you lots if you did! v  
**Warnings**: None.  
**Pairings: **None  
**Spoilers**: None, really. unless you have _no idea_ who the first person who joins Luffy's crew is. and that would mean you haven't even read the first manga or watched the second episode of the anime. and i'd be wondering what you're doing reading this fic oO  
**Disclaimer**: One Piece isn't mine. it's Eiichiro Oda, and he's a GENIUS. i wouldn't have made the anime _nearly_ as cool as he managed to... though i probably would put in more moments when Zoro or Sanji look especially hot... and Luffy is even more endearing... and Usopp is freaking out for some reason and Nami is getting angry...and ...stopping there. because it'd go for quiiiite some time...  
**Did I forget anything? **probably  
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For some people, his wide-eyed stare and cheerful smile was a testament to how he much of a simpleton he was. The way he laughed so much, or seemed entirely unaffected by the complexities of the world around him became evidence for his stupidity. While he was capable of great strengths during fights, while he was tenacious enough to see the battle through, some felt he was still hampered by his inability to grasp how outranked he was, how impossible it all was, how blithely unaware he was of the truth of the situation. 

He seemed too stupid to understand.

He _had_ to be 'too stupid' to not understand the impossibility of his dreams.

Besides, he was only concerned with food, wasn't he? The only time he ever seemed serious was when his nakama was in trouble, or when an ideal he believed in was challenged. And isn't that just an idiot trying to protect his idiotic beliefs? Because he was too stupid to realize that his ideals were wrong in the first place, that the challenger was _right_ in his view, and that destroying that naïveté before it destroyed _him_ was the kindest thing a person could do? And how important _could_ a person's beliefs be in the first place if he was so easily distracted by eating, by wanting more food, by loving it so much that he stole from those around him?

He made no sense.

In a world of pirates, of deceit and danger, of death and destruction, he was an enigma.

He believed in the impossible. When told it _was_ impossible, he simply made a new claim. '_I'm too strong,' _they'd tell him, and he'd say back, '_I'll just become stronger.' 'You'll never make it,' _they'd say, and he'd answer, _'I will.' _ And when asked why, his only answer was, _'Because I'm the man who will become the Pirate King!'_

As if that statement made it true.

As if by believing in it so much, he could make it a reality.

But life isn't made by grand words. Reality shouldn't bend to a seventeen-year-old with a wide grin and impossibly blissful laughter. The truth of the world should _never_ have found itself faltering and changing just to fit the dream of a child too simple to understand that life isn't fair.

Life isn't fair.

It shouldn't change for him.

_Life isn't fair._

Just because he believed in himself doesn't mean anyone else should. Just because he could so blithely lay claim to the future title of Pirate King should _not _mean he _will _be it. Instead, it should be the opposite. Instead, he should be failing miserably. The world does not change for grand words, and grand words cannot change the world. His claims should have long ago faltered, and his intense belief should have long ago vanished. His dreams should have broken down in his hands, fading away into the wind.

It should have happened.

So many had come before him, all equally positive in their strengths, and yet somehow they failed.

Somehow, they _failed. _

But he wasn't failing. He kept moving, forward and forward and forward, and somehow the seas of fate parted for him, and somehow reality stilled the waves just enough that he would be battered, he would be challenged and hurt and shaken—but he would not go down. He would not capsize. He would continue, continue against all odds, always, always continue.

But why?

_Why _was he so able to keep moving?

He had stood before enemies no one else dared touch. He had walked straight into the path of men and women so powerful that others feared even whispering their names. He had challenged people who everyone else just _knew _were superior... and he had not flinched.

He stared at them. Stared at them, with his wide eyes and his mouth curled in an unforgiving frown, and he was silent. Sometimes he screamed, if he was angry enough. Sometimes his eyes were colder than should have been possible. But sometimes, he could only glare hatefully.

It was unnerving, in a way. A scrawny teenager, not even legally adult!—and he was challenging the world with only his frown, his anger, and his beliefs.

He had no weapons.

He had no fear.

He had his beliefs, his dreams, and his nakama... and that was all he needed.

But no one could believe him. A child, he seemed. Nothing but a simple child. An idiotic kid too stupid to realize when he was in over his head. How could he be anything else, to walk so calmly into danger? To step so confidently into the path of madmen and murderers, sociopaths and men so strong they never had to worry before about rebellion? A simple child, a simple, simple child, who happened to have the abilities of a monster after he ate the Gomu-Gomu Fruit. But he had to be a child nonetheless, caught in an adult's world, and so far managing to live only through sheer luck alone.

But it was not merely luck that sustained him, or the fact that he was too stupid to give up. It was not, in fact, idiocy at all that kept Luffy going.

In a way, it was because he _was _smart. It was his intelligence itself that leant him strength. He was not intelligent like a genius—he rarely seemed to truly grasp the technicalities of a situation. He did not possess the intelligence one gets from being 'street smart'—he could be, after all, rather gullible. He was not even a brilliant tactician, though no one could ever say he was incompetent in battles. In fact, he was _brilliant _at finding solutions where others would see none. He could manipulate his body differently at the last minute, constantly accustoming himself to his opponent's strengths, constantly upgrading his performance and adjusting for their tendencies until he found their weaknesses. In that sense, he was a _brilliant _fighter. But he did not often bother with tactics or technicalities—he was more accustomed to charging in, learning along the way, and being so tenacious that in the end even fate had to cede to him.

And he could be furious.

He was typically cheerful, quite often seemed almost dense with how oblivious he could be... but he could be furious. Irate. So angry that his glare was far fiercer than his opponent's—the effect made even darker after knowing what his typical expression was. Such a glower of fury could not possibly exist on someone so used to smiling blithely, but it did. Again and again the fury came, when he needed to defend that which he knew to be precious, that which he knew needed the protection. His anger was complete, intense, and amazing to behold. In his anger, the world would shift. In his intensity, he could accomplish things no one else had ever even _dreamed _of. Or if they dreamed, they never believed it would become reality.

Because it was unheard of.

Because what he believed in, what he set out to do...

It was all so impossible.

Impossible, impossible, he just didn't realize it yet.

But he still prevailed. Again and again, when it never should have happened, he could _win. _ What was it? What was it about this enigmatic child, this unassuming, completely confident _boy _that could win over everyone he touched, or destroy those who stood against him? How could he so carelessly put his life on the line for a goal that everyone else already knew to be fruitless?

_How? _ What did he have that made it so possible for him? _Why _was he _so damn successful? _ _Why_ would the world shift around him, peoples' lives stretch and intertwine, enemies fall to their knees before his carried-out wrath? _What was it about him? _ He defied understanding, defied reality, he defied _common sense! _ He was stupid, he _had to be, _for how else could he be winning? It could only be extreme stupidity that let him walk past so many warning signs, step through the gates of intimidation and strength, and end up on the other side as calm as could be?

What was it?

What was it he had?

...He had many things. Strengths people would not expect. Strengths of character that could defy reality simply because he did not stop when reality showed that success was so unlikely as to be impossible.

He had, of course, his Gomu-Gomu Fruit power. Being rubber and stretchable was an amazing asset for him, but that alone could never have given him the edge he had over life. It was less the consistency of his body, and more the inner workings of his mind and personality that allowed him to be so consistently successful.

What did he have?

He had belief, belief so complete that there was no room for doubt. He had instinct so refined that it would save him and those around him repeatedly, without him necessarily even knowing it. He had intuition so aware that he could look into a person's heart when he really tried, and without even knowing their story, without even having a _clue _of the circumstances... he could still make the right choice, and through that choice, he could save them. He had determination so powerful that it could make dreams and hopes become reality, could even turn those around him with their own intense dreams to shift a step to the left, and walk the same path as him.

That's what he did with his nakama.

Though small, his pirate crew could be considered nothing less than elite in an unrefined way. Though young, they were all so promising, so amazing at what they could do, so intent on seeing their personal battles through to the end. They fought—not a day went by when someone didn't get smacked on the head, or another wasn't yelled at—not one meal without someone having food stolen or wanting more, and others feeling exasperated at the antics. But they worked completely in synch. The moment danger was known, the second they were aware of complications—they worked together perfectly. No words even needed to be spoken; they split up, they took over, and when one's duties were fulfilled there was another right behind them to finish their own duty, to finish the job that the other one started. Like a classical song, the atmosphere and crew of the Going Merry could skip from laziness and near silence to raucous noise, layers of instruments and depth building atop each other until, overwhelmingly loud but beautiful, the music deafened the audience, each section on its own agenda but blending so seamlessly with the others that it was _one _voice the music had, _one _song, not many songs with a somewhat coherent beat, but _one song..._ and then just as abruptly, when the danger was over, it could fade—falter sometimes, gently lilt down others, and yet others stop as abruptly as it began, leaving an aching silence in its wake. But then, the softest of sounds, and the music would begin again, playful but honest, serious but amused, and the life of the boat would once more become a lazy day spent with very close friends.

Not one of his crewmembers knew what their future would hold. And how could they? Each of them had an agenda completely their own, and almost none of them expected to be pirates, _expected _to join a crew, especially not one run by such an unconventional captain. The precedent was set with Roronoa Zoro, infamous Pirate Hunter, known as a Demon to those who feared his incredible power. ...From Pirate Hunter to Straw Hat Luffy's first mate, and all because of a wide-eyed boy with entirely too cheerful of a grin and too grand of plans. Each crewmember after Zoro unwittingly fell under the same spell. The spell that had overcome others in battle too; the spell that was simply Luffy.

Not simple Luffy, but _simply Luffy. _ The crewmembers, his nakama, they joined because they chose to, because ultimately Luffy's enthusiasm for having them there coincided with their own wish to move on and out into the world. They joined because of Luffy, but they did not stay only because of him. They stayed because they wished to, and in that wish, they became closer than any tactics of fear or intimidation ever could make them. They became a unit, a team, nakama, and so much more. They remained independent, they retained themselves... but they were a team. They were nakama. And nothing anyone else did could change that. No amount of fights, no amount of disagreements or stolen food, no sudden typhoon or furious enemy from their past...

They were nakama.

They were a team.

They worked perfectly in synch... when they weren't fighting over silly things, things that made life worth living, that made the fights completely natural and something that could easily end in the ever-cheerful, carefree laughter that so often echoed around the ship.

The Going Merry would continue on... captained by a teenager so many had underestimated because of his smile and simple but grand proclamations, because of his wide-eyed stare and cheerful laughter directed at the world... crewed by the elite of their skills from outside the Grand Line, people who had come from many different backgrounds and somehow knew how to work together, knew how to fight but still remain the best of friends, the closest of nakama, even moments after the dust of said fight had settled.

The ship itself was impossible. A tiny ship that lasted far too long. A crew so small yet still so diverse, taken from backgrounds so different that it made no sense they would be there. And a captain that had nothing but himself, and yet somehow could challenge the strongest of the strong, and still come out on top. Even if it took him several tries. Even if he nearly died in the process. Even if it meant risking his life just to protect the future of nakama with pasts already tainted or destroyed.

He would do it.

He would do it, because of who he was. Because of what he was inside. Because of what he thought and how he felt, because of _who he was. _ That was the only answer, and it was an answer that could never explain him unless a person knew him first.

He could challenge the world because he was Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy, Straw Hat Luffy, captain of his crew of pirates, many of whom hated or were against pirates before they met him.

He could do this all simply because he was Luffy.

And Luffy _never _gave up.

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i'm not sure how well i got across what i _really _think about Luffy, but i suppose this is a start since i'm SUCH a Luffy-lover, it'll probably take me a really long time before i finally think i got across all i wanted to say. i _really _get sick of people calling Luffy an idiot... or rather, i find it amusing in the anime. but when people who don't know Luffy well say it with a completely serious face... i feel rather indignant on his behalf. i don't think he's an idiot.i think he just sees the world in simple ways. and does that make _him _an idiot, or everyone else... for unnecessarily complicating something that could have been left well enough alone?

...anyway, im done preaching now cough i hope you enjoyed! and go watch/read more One Piece! best pastime ever, i swear


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